Wednesday, July 13, 2011

A Trenton Line Saturday morning surprise...

(Train sightings on 7-9-11.)

Saturday morning found me heading down to Belle Mead to check on the progress of the Route 206 brigde construction project. Not much has changed since my last visit as progress is slow but inevitable. A few minutes pass and I see a northbound headlight approaching my location. Hmmm... must be CSX's Q300 heading to Manville to drop off or pick up some cars. My scanner soon informs me of my incorrect assumption with the annoucemnt "K634, Belle Mead...". It is an ethanol train that orginated in Bensenville, IL and is headed for Sewaren, NJ. This was a reroute due to CSX's train accident in East Syracuse, NY on Wednesday. The crash happened shortly before 12:30 p.m on Wednesday July 6th. One train reportedly rear-ended another, and some train cars were jammed together and are partially resting on top of each other. CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan said one train was travelling from Cincinnati to Selkirk, New York with two locomotives and 58 freight cars. That train was hit from behind by a second train headed from Chicago to South Kearney, New Jersey, carrying two engines and 46 cars. A total of two locomotives and four freight cars were dislodged from the tracks. Both trains were headed in the same direction. Seen here bringing its consist north at 47 mph is CSX 7340 followed by CSX 55, Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern (DM&E) 6094 and Iowa Chicago & Eastern "City of Algona" (ICE) 6216.